With DreamHack Leipzig behind us and the first WCS Circuit champion crowned, the next step in the experiment of WCS 2016 is IEM Taipei, an eight-player invitational that will not be doling out Circuit points, but instead has $25,000 up for grabs.
And unlike regular WCS Circuit events, which have on the whole worked to exclude Korean players, IEM Taipei has gone so far as to invite six of them, fully three quarters of the players involved. Only Snute and Lilbow will represent the foreign scene in Taiwan.
The tournament comes at a time of passionate discussion in the StarCraft scene, as defenders and critics of the new system clash over its viability. In this sense, Taipei will provide something of a counterpoint. We’ve seen one side, and the success of DreamHack Leipzig gave region-lockers something tangible to point to. Now, Taipei will test how successful nearly pure top-level play can be. To that effect, eight of the game’s strongest are flying to Taipei for Feb. 1.
The tournament will also be the first to showcase the newest version of Legacy of the Void, as aspects of both the Protoss and Zerg arsenal have been nerfed. Pylon Overcharge energy cost is up, along with its attack speed (for what is likely an overall nerf), while the Viper’s Parasitic Bomb ability damage has been reduced. How this will change the game is up in the air, though opinions abound over the relative strengths of each race going forward.
You can be sure, however, that each of the eight players in Taipei will do their utmost to quickly adapt (and to create) the new meta. The four Protoss competitors — MC, herO, sOs and Lilbow — are perhaps the most pressured, as the Pylon Overcharge ability has been a core defensive tool since its implementation.
MC’s “retirement” is in full-swing, though he seems to be following the Stephano example. The idea of an eight-player is obviously to his liking. MC has a style that is well-suited to Legacy of the Void’s emphasis on aggression and multitasking, and he has acquitted himself well so far in the expansion. Add that to his legendary killer instinct and decision-making, and MC will always be a dangerous opponent, retired or not.
herO and sOs make up the KeSPA contingent of Taipei’s competitors. Not too much remains to be said about them — they are two of the best Protoss players in all of StarCraft 2. sOs is a two-time BlizzCon champion and the holder of a handful of other titles. herO, meanwhile, is an IEM legend, winning three separate titles. He is coming off the best year of his career. In 2015 he emerged as the most consistently stellar Protoss player in Korea, winning a SSL, a KeSPA Cup and carrying CJ Entus in Proleague.
Lilbow rounds out the Protoss ranks and is our first non-Korean player. The French Protoss has struggled somewhat since the high of his WCS Season 3 victory last year, starting with his controversial performance at BlizzCon. He has picked up lately, but his skill level relative to foreigners — let alone top Koreans — right now is questionable. Lilbow probably has the most to prove going into Taipei, but he will have a tough go of it, especially considering his first opponent.
ByuN’s story reads like eSports fanfiction. Out of the game for years, unseen, unknown, a once-great player returns from the dead in a new era of the game. In April 2015, ByuN started appearing in online cups, dominating small events while failing to appear at a number of offline tournaments. Once Legacy of the Void launched, he gained almost immediate notoriety as the best player in the game, often a single Terran who held out against a torrent of Ravager all-ins in the early stages of the expansion. Then, as the new competitive year got underway, we finally saw ByuN in the flesh. A new Ghost King on a new team, returning from the dead to break into both Korean leagues. ByuN is still something of an unknown quantity, but we at least know him to be among the deadliest progamers playing right now.
His Terran compatriot is Polt, the perennial Terran legend, one of the game’s greatest remaining veterans. Polt is one of the few Koreans left in the WCS Circuit and his performance here will be yet another test of how well the “foreign Koreans” can hold up after years practicing outside the Korean ecosystem. Yet Polt’s consistency is his greatest strength — if he’s been practicing well, he will always be a threat.
Finally, we have the Zergs. Two players with very different histories, they will be hoping to continue the dominance of the Swarm in Legacy of the Void. Soulkey was considered the best Zerg in the world in 2013, but dropped into semi-retirement in 2015 after a mediocre year. Soulkey will be up against Polt in a TvZ for the ages.
Snute, meanwhile, is going up against herO and will be looking back to IEM Toronto in 2014, where he beat the Korean ace twice. What's more, at IEM Shenzhen last year, he beat both Classic and Rain, then the reigning SSL and GSL champion. Snute has the capability to come up big when the pressure is on, and the disconnect between foreign and Korean metas often works to his advantage. Good thing, too, because he will need every edge to reenact his miraculous wins against herO.
Taipei presents us with a cast of characters, each fulfilling their own unique role in the drama to come. A retired legend, a psychological mastermind. A man risen from the grave and a pair of foreign hopes. Leipzig gave us a glimpse of how 2016 will play out in the foreign scene, while SSL and Code A have already shown us the new Korea. Now, those two arenas come together in Taiwan for two days of high stakes, high pressure competition.
Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto praying for a ByuN Ghost rush. You can follow him on Twitter.
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